Saturday, August 14, 2010

Advanced Statisical Analysis

Starting pitcher
Zo

In April, the Giants played three games at home on Friday nights. These are called "Orange Fridays" because of the garish orange jerseys they wear on those occasions. In April, they won all three games. In May, they played two such Orange Fridays, and won both games. In June, they also played two Orange Friday games, winning both. In July, again, they played two home games on Fridays and were victorious in both the Orange Friday events. Yesterday evening was the first Orange Friday game that the Giants have played during the month of August. They were not victorious. For the record, they were 9 and 1 on Orange Friday.

The author of this blog, Mark, and principal contributor, Jon, have made note of the string of victories prior to last night. However, during the succession of victories, neither were in attendance at any of the games. Last night, both saw the game in person at ATT Park on McCovey Cove. As previously noted, the Giants lost.

A clear-eyed rationalist might find a cause-and-effect relationship here, such as: When Mark and Jon do not attend game on Orange Friday, Giants win, but when Mark and Jon attend game on Orange Friday, Giants lose; therefore, Mark and Jon cause the Giants to lose by attending on Orange Friday. I am not a clear-eyed rationalist, I only note the correlation.

5 comments:

One does not suddenly attend a game on Friday the 13th, when a streak is involved unless the streak is one which you want to break. I hope the effect of his is only that one game, but I will have to defer to the McCoven.

I was born on a Friday the 13th--it is normally good luck for me. And, mostly, it was good luck. The trip south was smooth and fun, the SF experience was relaxed and easy. We got to have a great visit with our old pal we had not seen in 25 years (the reason for the journey). The only bad thing was that the Giants lost the damn game!

Obviously it was our friend's fault. We did have an epic trip that was truly enjoyable, even with the loss. I can not think of a closer contest that I have attended, so for sheer baseball tension it was a game for the ages.

You know, that happened to me too yesterday. I had a great day, visited a friend that I haven't seen in a month, played Soul Calibur IV with my other friend, and then the two of us went to this Italian festival. I helped get her through her fear of ferris wheels. We went back to her house, played piano (although, she was playing, I was mashing keys). Then I came home, just in time for the game, and they lost. You can't have everything, though I saw the loss coming. I even told her on the walk to the festival, "this is a great day...the Giants are gonna lose." I'm getting better at predicting outcomes I've noticed.

But, that just made today's victory even sweeter (even though I missed it, BUT my family and I went to our favourite restaurant for my Father's birthday and we had a good time). The Baseball Gods are funny. Go Giants!